Testing is important for developing, maintaining, and updating software systems. For large software systems utilized by many organizations, testing is often a complex and expensive process. The software systems may involve many thousands transactions and business processes, each with various possible options and configuration possibilities. In such cases, it is difficult to determine which transactions and options need to be covered, and how to devise appropriate tests.
However, it is often the case that software systems belonging to different organizations utilize many software modules that are the same or similar, involving similar transactions and configuration options. Were organizations able to utilize each other's testing-related knowledge, which is in a sense a wisdom of the crowd (of testers), they might be able to come up with a more effective and efficient testing plan.